A young Leif leaves his home country of Denmark in 1875 and takes to the seas, working aboard whalers for ten years. While visiting a small Danish village, he meets and falls in love with Maren, the blue-eyed daughter of a theologian that Leif has admired for a long time. When his sailing takes him to a lush island in Puget Sound, USA, he decides to settle down and sends for Maren. They marry and raise a family of four: Lars, Ben, Hannah, and baby Christian. A tragic accident takes the life of the baby Christian and scars Maren's body. The entire family is devastated by the accident and react in their own ways. Maren, badly burned, must deal with changes in both her body and her mind. Daughter Hannah 6, assumes blame for the accident and takes her time returning to her effervescent young self. Her two older brothers, Lars 12, and Ben 8, both feel guilty for not protecting their mother; the serious Lars buries himself in following in his father's footsteps; Ben, an imaginative boy, attempts to make everything better for everyone. Maren comes to realize that the lives of her family, much like the lives of the fir trees that populate their island, are resilient. She finds her own peace. Horror and pain have come to her family, much like the fir trees that undergo assaults of lightning, fire, windstorms, mudslides, and tree-cutting machines - Still The Tall Fir Grows.